While retaining the RTPnet function, the umbrella organization, PIN, expanded to include two additional arms – NCCommunities and Administration. The three operating arms will work together to support the mission of PIN and will be run by specially designated committees. Online and printed materials about RTPnet will gradually be changed to reflect the organizational changes and other strategic planning recommendations adopted in 2008.

System Administrators: Amnon Nissan and Ron Bickers, of Deltaforce Technologies, are the System Administrators.

Membership: RTPnet Membership, currently 114 active, billable members, remained constant during 2008 — lost 10 and gained 10. See Appendix: RTPnet Membership Changes for lists of new and lost members.

Software Upgrades: In February, RTPnet software was upgraded:

• Apache 2.0 to 2.2
• MySQL 4.1 to 5.0
• PHP 4.4 to PHP 5.2

Content Management System Expertise: PIN volunteers continue to develop skills using Content Management Systems. The RTPnet site is now in Joomla! supported primarily by Mike Rulison and Amnon Nissan. NCCommunities is in Drupal, supported by Judy Hallman and an expanding team that includes Rebecca Currie, Alice Denson, and Nancy Shoemaker. Nancy also has sites on RTPnet that use WordPress.

The Meetup site has an active group that has grown to about 125 since May. Members describe their interests and comment on meetings on the Web site. NTEN hosts an affinity group for the organizers' team, about 10 people. A sign-up/evaluation form designed by Nancy Shoemaker and distributed at each meeting, has been instrumental in identifying meeting topics and presenters. PIN purchased a Dell 2400MP DLP Projector, primarily for these meetings.

The meetings in 2008 were:

• Don't Push the River, It Flows by Itself (using Web 2.0 tools), Ruby Sinreich, Co-Director of Communications, Fellowship of Reconciliation, May 22, at the NC Center for Non-Profits, Raleigh, organized by Judy and Chris, 25 attended.

• Managed Services, Jim Ray, President of Neuse River Networks, June 17, at the NC Center for Non-Profits, Raleigh, organized by Chris, 7 attended.

• Innovative Online Community Building and Multimedia Web Marketing/Promotions!, Wayne Sutton, Social Media Strategist, Technology Evangelist and Mobile Consultant, July 8, at the NC Center for Non-Profits, Raleigh, organized by Chris, 9 attended.

• Emarketing, Drew Adams, Co-founder and President of Contactology, August 18, at the NC Center for Non-Profits, Raleigh, organized by Chris, 6 attended.

• Online Conferencing, Paula Jones, Technology Director for the N.C. Center for Nonprofits, and Nancy Shoemaker, Consultant at Shoemaker Group, September 9, Wake County West Regional Library, Cary, organized by Judy and the team, 24 attended.

• Social Marketing for Nonprofits, Mike Newton-Ward, Social Marketing Consultant, NC Division of Public Health, October 14, Wake County West Regional Library, Cary, organized by Judy and the team, 7 attended.

• Google Services for Nonprofits, Todd Sutton, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Application Services, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Google Apps EDU Customer Advisory Board member, 40 attended, November 11, Triangle United Way, organized by Judy and the team.

• Social hosted by RTPnet in appreciation of its customers and friends, December 9, Carolina Brewery in Chapel Hill, organized by Marjorie, 21 attended,

1. NCLA.NCCommunities.org, an information exchange site for literacy agencies across the state of North Carolina, has about 70 registered users and has the most active site.

2. OCLC.NCCommunities.org is an information exchange site for the Orange County Literacy Council volunteers, staff, and board of directors.

3. ScrapExchange.NCCommunities.org is an information exchange site for the Scrap Exchange board of directors, staff, and friends.

4. NCWU.NCCommunities.org is a test site to support the administration of NC Women United.

5. Judy has started putting content in PINinc.NCCommunities.org. This site will be used to try out CiviCRM with data from the sign-in forms from Net Tuesday/501 Tech Club meetings, as well as being site for PIN directors, advisors, and volunteers. This site will replace the RTPnet wiki currently at http://computerselfhelp.org/index.php?n=PRIVATEarea.RTPnetAdvisors.

6. Huntresses.org is an information exchange site for members of Judy Hallman's family. They use Blogs for posting "Current activities" and are using Drupal Image Galleries.

Some things we've learned:

• Notifications of changes emailed once-a-day, in one message which is similar to a "digest" for an email list, help people maintain awareness of the site.

• People are busy doing other things and don't post as much as we'd like them to.

• On some sites, we've created a sitemgr account and role so that people other than the site administrator can add/delete users and edit content.

• We spent a lot of time working with Organic Groups and Organic Group Forums. The current software does not adequately support private groups or developing structures resource content (books).

Support issues: We've set up a special area in NCCommunities.org for a Drupal support team (http://nccommunities.org/drupal-team). The team is growing and includes a couple of people from the Durham Drupal Meetup group http://drupal.meetup.com/19/

• Association For Community Networking (AFCN)
• Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet)
• N.C. Center for Nonprofits
• Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network (N-TEN): RTPnet staff are Marjorie, Warren and Judy

In November 2007, Judy signed a "Memorandum of Understanding Between NTEN & Judy Hallman, RTPnet." The agreement calls for organizing face-to-face gatherings for the Triangle 501 Tech Club in 2008. NTEN reimburses RTPnet for up to $50 of meeting expenses.

Checking Account Balance on 12/31/07:      $4,995.45           
Certificate of Deposit on 12/31/07:       $11,737.20
Total Assets on 12/31/07:                 $16,732.65

Total Income:                              $8,979.08
Total Expenses:                            $5,356.70
    
Checking Account Balance on 12/31/08:      $6,753.44 
Certificate of Deposit #7149 on 12/31/08:  $6,193.74
Certificate of Deposit #3671 on 12/31/08:  $6,029.50
Total Assets on 12/31/08:                 $18,976.68
                                   

Committees:

The work of PIN will be accomplished through committees. Development of a committee structure started at the March meeting.

• Board Development Committee: Marjorie, Bob Sams, Alice
  Marjorie suggested board member candidate procedures in email April 1, 2008. At the March meeting, Alice recommended some board orientation or training for new board members.

• Marketing Committee: including Web Redesign (Heather); Recruiting New Members (Mike); Defining New Products to be Marketed (Alice)

• Operations Committee: including Technology Committee (Amnon); Defining Organizational Procedures (Warren)

Meetings:

• January 17: Board meeting at China Express. Guests: Trudy Smith and Perry Colwell of Executive Service Corps of the Greater Triangle. The board accepted the recommendations of the Strategic Planning Task force, including the new organization chart.

• March 20: Board meeting (annual meeting) at Parkwood Branch, Durham Public Library, 5122 Revere Road, Durham. Board terms renewed for Alice Denson, Marjorie Fowler, Bob Sams. Officers elected: President, Marjorie Fowler; Vice-President, Bob Sams; Secretary, Mark Ishman; Treasurer, Warren Fuson.

• June 26: Board meeting, 6:30-8:30 pm at the Parkwood Branch of the Durham County Library.

• July 8: The final RTPNet Strategic Planning Committee meeting was held at the offices of hesketh.com, 1101 Haynes Street, Suite 109, Raleigh.

• September 25: Board meeting at 6:30 pm in the conference room at the Eva Perry Regional Library, 2100 Shepherd’s Vineyard Drive, Apex, NC 27502

• October 30: A demonstration of Drupal Sites under development under NCCommunities was held at Wake West Regional Library, Cary.

Board and Advisor Changes:

• Mike Rulison resigned from the board in March.
• Andrea (Andy) Huyck joined the board in June.
• Glenn Cutler, Chris Limerick, and Stan Martin joined the advisors council in May.
• Bob Babione finished his VISTA service, moved back to St. Louis, and resigned from the advisors council.

Board Members:

Advisors Council Members:

• BounceBack Kids
• Carolina EV Challenge (returned)
• Clean Energy Durham
• Joy of Discovery Lutheran Church
• Mountainside Lutheran Church
• MSing Links MS-150 Cycling Team
• North Carolina Rail-Trails
• North Carolina Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster
• Purple Elephant Computer Factory for Kids!
• Sister Cities Association of Raleigh

10 Canceled Membership:

• All Souls Church, Unitarian Universalist, Durham
• Chatham Conservation Partnership
• Communities In Schools of Orange County
• Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) -- Eastern NC
• Literacy Council of Wake County
• North Carolina Fencing Development Program (NCFDP)
• Piedmont Unit 161 of WBCCI
• Raleigh Astronomy Club
• Sister Cities Association of Cary, Inc.
• Triangle Folk Music Society